Be this as it may, grouping a plurality of insulated conductors in the same sheath to constitute a single cable is known in the art. This kind of assembly is usually produced by extruding the sheath around the various insulated conductors assembled into a bundle beforehand.
However, this type of fabrication method has the drawback that the sheath and each insulated conductor stick together. During extrusion, the sheath material is in fact used in the molten state and is brought directly into contact with the insulative material of each insulated conductor. The resulting adhesion between the materials in question makes the cable particularly difficult to strip afterwards. This problem is particularly acute given that the sheath at the end of the cable must be systematically removed when a connection is envisaged.
One prior art solution to this problem of adhesion is to cover the exterior surface of each insulated conductor with talc before extruding the sheath. However, this operation proves somewhat impractical, essentially because of the powdery nature of the talc, which makes any manipulation difficult and inevitably causes soiling. In the final analysis, this represents a penalty on the productivity of the entire cable fabrication line. Applying this non-stick material also requires the use of dedicated equipment, which has a negative impact on the unit cost of the cable.
Another solution to avoiding the phenomenon of the sheath and the insulated conductors sticking to each other is to coat the exterior surface of each insulative member with an emulsion based on silicone. However, this operation proves no more practical to implement than the previous one, this time because of the oily consistency of the non-stick material, which makes application just as difficult and produces just as much soiling as the solution previously referred to. Moreover, dedicated equipment is again needed. In the final analysis, the consequences in terms of productivity and unit cost are substantially identical to those inherent to the use of the first solution.